Category Social Sciences

Whose address is 221B, Baker Street, London?

221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

At the time the Holmes stories were published, addresses in Baker Street did not go as high as 221. Baker Street was later extended, and in 1932 the Abbey National Building Society moved into premises at 219–229 Baker Street. For many years, Abbey National employed a full-time secretary to answer mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes. In 1990, a blue plaque signifying 221B Baker Street was installed at the Sherlock Holmes Museum, situated elsewhere on the same block, and there followed a 15-year dispute between Abbey National and the Holmes Museum for the right to receive mail addressed to 221B Baker Street. Since the closure of Abbey House in 2005, ownership of the address by the Holmes Museum has not been challenged, despite its location between 237 and 241 Baker Street.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is situated within an 1815 townhouse very similar to the 221B described in the stories and is located between 237 and 241 Baker Street. It displays exhibits in period rooms, wax figures and Holmes memorabilia, with the famous study overlooking Baker Street the highlight of the museum. The description of the house can be found throughout the stories, including the 17 steps leading from the ground-floor hallway to the first-floor study.

 

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Which fictional character created by writer R.K. Narayan resides on Vinayaka Mudali Street in Malgudi?

Swami and Friends is the first of a trilogy of novels written by R. K. Narayan (1906–2001), English language novelist from India. The novel, the first book Narayan wrote, is set in British India in a fictional town called Malgudi. The second and third books in the trilogy are The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.

Swami and Friends is the first novel written by R. K. Narayan. It was published through the intervention of a friend and neighbour (“Kittu” Purna) who was studying at Oxford. Through him, Graham Greene came into contact with Narayan’s work, became especially interested in it and took it upon himself to place the book with a reputable English publisher (Hamish Hamilton). Graham Greene was responsible for the title Swami and Friends, changing it from Narayan’s Swami, the Tate, suggesting that it would have the advantage of having some resemblance to Rudyard Kipling’s Stalky & Co..

Greene arranged the details of the contract and remained closely involved until the novel was published. Narayan’s indebtedness to Greene is inscribed on the front endpaper of a copy of Swami and Friends Narayan presented to Greene: “But for you, Swami should be in the bottom of Thames now”.

 

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Who live in Wayne Manor?

Wayne Manor is a fictional American mansion appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is the personal residence of Bruce Wayne, who is also the superhero Batman.

The residence is depicted as a large mansion on the outskirts of Gotham City and is maintained by the Wayne family’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth. 

The manor acts as a home base and representation of Bruce’s old wealth life, despite matching the Gothic architecture present in Gotham. For live-action films, English country house locations in Nottinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Buckinghamshire, as well as Stevenson Taylor Hall in New York, have been used to depict Wayne Manor.

The manor grounds include an extensive cave system that Bruce Wayne discovered as a boy and later used as his base of operations, the Batcave. The method used to access it from inside the mansion has varied across the different storylines in the comics, movies, and shows. In the comic books, it is typically accessible from a hidden door in Wayne Manor’s study behind a non-functioning grandfather clock, which opens to a descending staircase when the hands on said clock are turned to 10:47, the time Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed.

The Batcave is accessible from outside the mansion through a hidden entrance on the estate’s grounds. This entrance leads directly to the Batcave and has been depicted in different forms, including a waterfall, pond, hologram, and camouflaged door.

 

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What is a mud lion?

Also called yardangs, mud lions form in deserts where conditions are hot and dry. When winds full of sand blow forcefully in one direction against rock, the rock is abraded over a period of time, sometimes hundreds of years, into fantastic shapes. Yardang is Turkic for ‘steep bank’. In China, they are sometimes known as yadan from the Chinese transcription of the Uyghur form of the same name.

Soft rock such as limestone and sandstone lend themselves materials can also form mud lions.

Mud lions are often seen in clusters or in a long ridge. Though the name suggests an animal shape, a yardang can resemble a human figure or a building-like structure.

In Africa, especially in the Egyptian desert, there are numerous yardangs. A large concentration of mega-yardangs are found near the Tibesti Mountains in the central Sahara. In fact, some historians and geologists think that the Sphinx of Giza might have begun as a mud lion which inspired sculptors to carve it further into its present form! There is a famous yardang at Hole in the Rock in Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona, a rock formation with a roughly circular hole in it. Another yardang in Arizona is Window Rock, near the town of Window Rock. It is a 60-metre sandstone hill with a very large circular hole in the middle of it. Some of the mud lions in the desert areas are so battered by wind that they have tunnels bored into them!

 

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What are pet rocks?

In April 1975, an American Gary Dahl told his friends that he had the perfect pet. It required no maintenance, was cheap and always obedient. Dahl was referring to his pet rock! He meant it as a joke, but his advertising colleagues jumped on the idea. As if to prove the fact that Americans would buy anything if it was marketed cleverly, pet rocks became a fad!

Dahl wrote The Pet Training Manual in two weeks. It guided owners on how to  house – train and build a rapport with their rocks. They could teach the rock tricks such as how to play dead and roll over.

Dahl then created a pet rock to go with the manual. He bought a Rosarita Beach Stone, a round gray pebble that was the most expensive one in the builders’ supply store. He packed it in soft wood shavings inside a decorative pet carrying case and added the manual. Amazingly, more than 5 million Pet Rocks were sold all over the U.S. at $3.95 apiece. Originally, the Pet Rocks were plain, but Dahl added to the line, creating rocks with faces painted on them, birth certificates and even several pebbles sold together as a family.

Before the fad petered out, Dahl became an overnight millionaire and celebrity, appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

 

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On which river bank did the Battle of the Hydaspes happen?

Battle of the Hydaspes, (326 BCE), fourth and last pitched battle fought by Alexander the Great during his campaign of conquest in Asia. The fight on the banks of the Hydaspes River in India was the closest Alexander the Great came to defeat. 

The battle took place on the east bank of the Hydaspes River (now called the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus River) in what is now the Punjab Province of Pakistan. Alexander later founded the city of Nicaea on the site; this city has yet to be discovered. Any attempt to find the ancient battle site is complicated by considerable changes to the landscape over time. For the moment, the most plausible location is just south of the city of Jhelum, where the ancient main road crossed the river and where a Buddhist source mentions a city that may be Nicaea. The identification of the battle site near modern Jalalpur/Haranpur is certainly erroneous, as the river (in ancient times) meandered far from these cities.

Alexander had to subdue King Porus in order to keep marching east.[citation needed] To leave such a strong opponent at his flanks would have endangered any further exploits. Alexander could not afford to show any weakness if he wanted to keep the loyalty of the already subdued Indian princes. Porus had to defend his kingdom and chose the perfect spot to check Alexander’s advance. Although he lost the battle, he became the most successful recorded opponent of Alexander.

 

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